Workers Must Strengthen their Collectives and Fight for their Interests

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

The Debate about Links with the Labour Party:
Workers Must Strengthen their Collectives and Fight for their Interests

With the decision of the Labour Party to disaffiliate the RMT at 12 noon on Saturday, February 7, the debate about the links of the organised workers to the Labour Party took on new immediacy.

            The debate, in our opinion, cannot be limited to repeating and insisting on positions from the past, but must be focused on advancing the interests of the workers as a collective, the general interests of society and recognising and developing the space for change that will favour the working class and people in reality.

            The present reality that workers and the people as a whole are faced with every day is the dictate of the monopolies and the financiers, that the people are effectively disenfranchised since their anti-war voice goes unheeded. Public services are being privatised, manufacturing industries are being destroyed with the resulting devastation of not only communities but also the national well being and economy.

            It is not even admitted generally by the government that different collectives have different interests, let alone how these should be harmonised in the general interests of society. The general interests of society are routinely equated with the interests of big business and those that seek the maximum return on capital, while the people are asked to become slaves of this general interest so defined.

            A few years ago, as the 21st century dawned, it was possible to draw the conclusion that in many respects the working class in Britain faced a situation similar to 100 years before. Then the capitalist society was developing into capitalism under the dictate of the monopolies, finance capitalism was emerging, imperialist states were gearing up to redivide the world. But the modern working class was also ready to appear on the stage of world developments. In Britain, organised in the trade unions, it was becoming conscious that it needed its independent political voice, as the class struggle sharpened, the parliamentary system faced a crisis of credibility and workers became disillusioned with the Liberal Party as a party of commercial interests. In these circumstances, it became clear that the independent voice of the workers must be heard in parliament, and the Labour Representation Committee was founded. The realisation grew, as the attacks of the state on the organised workers continued, that a party was required which represented the workers mobilised independently for political action for the first time since the days of the Chartists.

            The consciousness has therefore grown in the past three or more years, with the Labour government stepping up its anti-social offensive, showing that it is a pro-war government and one dedicated to paying the rich, one using the name of “labour” to attack labour, that once again the workers need their independent voice within and outside parliament. The debate is being joined as to the character of this independent voice, whether it is necessary to wage the struggles of the 20th century all over again, whether the experience of the 20th century can be summed up so as to define the way forward on a new historical basis rather than the old one, and so on.

            The Labour Party, as the era of imperialism emerged, took the course of consolidating itself as party of the old type, dedicated to coming to power, becoming part of the party-dominated system which keeps the working class and people away from power, and from decision-making. The “British” character of the Labour Party defined it as a cross between a mass workers’ party and a revolutionary socialist party, and being neither. In other words, it neither whole-heartedly adopted the struggle for the workers’ interests, nor the political aim of the transformation of society into a new socialist one.

            It must now be recognised that the Labour Party has been transformed into a party whose role in the present crisis has been to implement the “Third Way” programme of reaction, chauvinism and warmongering. The emergence of the “left” trade union leaders reflects this movement to build the Workers’ Opposition to this programme. The issue becomes how to strengthen this trend, with the full participation of the workers themselves, the summing up of the disillusionment with the Labour Party and the whole system of representative democracy. Should not the unions be strengthened on the basis of what the workers can understand favours their interests, on the basis that the union makes us strong, and that an injury to one is an injury to all? And should not the workers also discuss in a rational and calm way what kind of party favours their interests, what should be the characteristics of a mass workers’ party, and of a party which has the aim of constituting the workers as the nation and vesting sovereignty in the people, under modern circumstances?

            The workers themselves cannot afford to voluntarily hand over the initiative to any other force. Historically, the unity of the workers’ movement for its interests and for a society without wage slavery has been split by the chauvinism injected into the movement through its links with the Labour Party as a party which supports the agenda of British monopoly capital, and paid for by the superprofits from imperialism and neo-liberal globalisation. This unity can be forged by rejecting this chauvinism, by affirming the dignity of human labour and by upholding the rights of all human beings.

            As the crisis of society deepens, and the need of the times is for the working class to come to the fore in charting the way out of the crisis, building resistance and planting the alternative, the issue which presents itself to the workers, in our opinion, is neither one of reclaiming or democratising the Labour Party for the trade unions nor to go back a century and re-form the Labour Representation Committee. The task which presents itself to the workers is to fight against the “Third Way” programme which the rich are imposing on society, for workers to fight for the interests of their collectives with a clear conscience, and to get fully involved in the struggle and debate about the way forward for the economy and society.

            The workers must take up the task of fighting for an economy which serves the well-being of the peoples of Britain, and at the same time take up this task in unity with the workers and peoples of all countries who are fighting the same battles, and oppose all attempts to line them up behind the aims of the global monopolies.

Solutions cannot be found by copying forms and mechanisms of the past, or by trying to impose a dogmatic rendering of reality. Now is the time for the workers to prepare to engage in the next general election on a new basis, the basis of building the Workers’ Opposition and electing worker politicians. WDIE calls on workers throughout Britain to take up this task, as part of their aim of building a society based on social responsibility, of respect for all that human beings hold dear, where the wealth that workers produce is under their control and applied for the benefit of the peoples.